Thailand, Thailand, dear little girl and guy land.
(cool points if you get the song I parodied for the title)
Still recovering from my trip. Jet lag is a killer, particularly when one is 13-14 hours off of the time one is used to being on. But here's a (slightly rambling) post to get the vacation report rolling.
In a line of posts about my trip, I present one about the Thai people. I figure I'd get bored typing, and y'all'd get bored reading, posts that were along the lines of 'today I did X Y Z, here are some pictures'. And besides, I have a hard time cataloging without making commentary. So instead of a chronological approach, I'm going to pick out things that stand out to me, and offer commentary about them. I'll also have posts about specific places I went and things I did, but they'll be grouped in ways that give me a chance to comment about the culture or history or architecture, not just what I did.
There are several things I noticed about Thai people. The first is, that, with few exceptions (namely, the street vendors near major tourist attractions who are really pushy) the people are all very friendly. One of the things I learned when studying for my trip is that, culturally, getting into an argument and getting angry with someone face to face is a sign of losing Face. Direct confrontation is bad, and if Thai people have a problem, they work quietly to resolve it, or will work through a third party to avoid getting angry in public. This carries over into how they treat foreigners. The hotel I picked to stay at wasn't in a major tourist center, but it was sort of in between all the places I wanted to go. As such, being an American walking down the street drew me a lot of stares, but invariably, if I caught someone staring and I smiled at them, I'd get a huge, face-splitting, smile in response.
One of the beaches I visited a few times was more of a locals beach, not a tourist one. And despite the usual stares, there was never a sense of exclusion. At one point a Thai woman came up to me and asked me to take a picture with her and someone in the group I was with, just, I think, because she wanted to have a picture with her and the crazy foreigners. Which, if I may deviate off-topic slightly, brings up something I noticed, which I've seen on other trips. There's a weird sort of unspoken protocol involved in taking a picture for someone. They hand you the camera, there's the few moments of indicating which button to push, then they pose, you take the picture(s), and they retrieve the camera. In all my travels, I've never seen someone hand off a camera to get a picture taken and then have the prospective picture-taker bolt with the camera. It's like there's an unspoken rule that if you're going to steal from people, that's not the time to do it. There's a weird sort of universal courtesy involved in picture-taking. But I digress. =)
I'm no expert with language but I did pick up a couple of phrases (Sawasdee ka = hello and Kap khun ka = thank you -- at least for women. The 'ka' bit is a 'polite' word that women use. Men use a different polite word in their phrases. I think it's 'kup', but I'm not entirely sure on the spelling). I found that using those phrases made the Thai folk even more friendly and the fact that I was willing to try a little Thai (even though I know my accent was awful, I have trouble getting tonal languages right), made them more patient with me as I used a combination of English and hand gestures to explain things. Most Thai speak English to some degree-- in the more touristy areas, I had no trouble with English at all. With the street vendors and shop keepers near the hotel, I ran into people who spoke very little English, but were very patient with me as I explained what I wanted from the store or the food vendors.
I also discovered a peculiar quirk with Thai salespeople, that unnerved me at first, but once I got used to it and figured it out, I actually liked it. If you walk into a Thai store, and there are free salespeople around, one of them will hover near you. They follow you everywhere you go. They don't usually push things at your or ask if you want help-- at first I thought the lack of talking was because of poor English, but I noticed this same behavior in how they helped locals-- unless they can tell you're looking for something specific, then they'll show you a lot of what you're looking for. But they're there in case you need help or have a question. It was a little odd having a shadow, and at first it felt like I was being pressured to buy something, but I noticed that there wasn't any negative response if I chose to not buy anything at a store, or any attempts to get really pushy (aside from the aforementioned street vendors at major tourist attractions). Once I got used to it, it was actually convenient. I could (and did-- I spent several days doing nothing but shopping) browse at my leisure and if I did have a question, or decided to buy something, I didn't have to hunt for someone to help me, but neither did I have to put up with a lot of high-pressure sales pitches.
In specific, there are two people I want to mention, my tour guide at the Grand Palace, and the tuk-tuk driver we hired one day in Bangkok. If you are ever in Thailand, and you're going to a major tourist site, like the Grand Palace, avoid talking to any of the sales vendors, but if you see someone with a badge around their neck saying 'licensed tour guide', pay whatever they're asking (it's usually a few hundred baht. I never paid more than about $15 or $20 for a tour guide), because it's always worth it. Instead of just getting the sites, you get the history as well. The tour guide we had at the Grand Palace was my first experience in hiring a guide, and he was worth every baht. Instead of just getting a bunch of pictures, I learned a lot about the history of the places, and the significance of a lot of the buildings and decorations in the complex. (more about that in another post). Our guide was a retired Captain in the Thai Royal Navy-- they force all their soldiers to retire at 60, and he wasn't ready to settle into a life of leisure so he became a tour guide. He was quite knowledgeable and his English was excellent. He put up with the barrage of questions we threw at him, and let us know where we could and couldn't take pictures, as well as helping us avoid any cultural faux pas as in some of the buildings certain dress codes were required. From what I could gather by watching other groups, all the tour guides were equally competent.
One day in Bangkok (in fact, our first attempt to see the Grand Palace, where we ended up getting sidetracked instead), we hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us around. A tuk-tuk is basically a glorified golf cart, used as a taxi. They don't charge much, and one of the reasons for that is that the drivers (at least in Bangkok, I didn't notice this near the hotel, which wasn't a tourist area) have deals with various stores and sites where if you buy something at them, they get a cut of the profits. So if all you want to do is tourist stuff, you're better served avoiding them in Bangkok, despite the low cost of their services. If you want to do a lot of shopping, you couldn't have a better guide. All of the major shopping purchases that I wanted to make I was able to do in that one day without wandering around lost because our driver knew exactly where to go. I was able to pick up some gemstones and jewelry that I wanted to acquire and I was able to get some tailor-made skirts out of Thai silk. I also had been asked by my fiance's mother to pick up as much undyed Thai silk as I could get for her (She gave me $300. I went over that, but it was for a good cause) and she'd make my wedding dress out of it and use any leftover for her other sewing projects. Thai silk sells for $60 a yard in the US. The tuk-tuk driver knew of a place that sold it, and took us there, and I paid just over $17 a yard for it (although they used meters, so it was $18.75 per meter) and got 20 meters' worth. Much better pricing than in the States. The other nice thing about the tuk-tuk drivers is that they'll wait for you while you do whatever it is you're doing, shopping, eating, sight-seeing. You can hire them more or less for the day.
And, since no post about a vacation would be complete without at least a couple of pictures, here are one of me and the tour guide (Tawee, although we called him "Captain" for the easiness factor) at the Grand Palace and one of our tuk-tuk driver (whose name I don't remember).
So to sum up, if you're ever in Thailand, hire a tour guide at the major sites if you can find one, if you want to do lots of shopping, hire a tuk-tuk driver (but taxis or buses are a better choice for sight-seeing), and remember that a 'Sawasdee ka' and a smile can go a long way. The people are very friendly and helpful, even if you're just stopping someone on the street to ask for directions. I definitely like living in the US, but I really became enamored with the Thai cultural norms. It's great to be in a place where generally people go out of their way to avoid confrontations and to be polite.
Still recovering from my trip. Jet lag is a killer, particularly when one is 13-14 hours off of the time one is used to being on. But here's a (slightly rambling) post to get the vacation report rolling.
In a line of posts about my trip, I present one about the Thai people. I figure I'd get bored typing, and y'all'd get bored reading, posts that were along the lines of 'today I did X Y Z, here are some pictures'. And besides, I have a hard time cataloging without making commentary. So instead of a chronological approach, I'm going to pick out things that stand out to me, and offer commentary about them. I'll also have posts about specific places I went and things I did, but they'll be grouped in ways that give me a chance to comment about the culture or history or architecture, not just what I did.
There are several things I noticed about Thai people. The first is, that, with few exceptions (namely, the street vendors near major tourist attractions who are really pushy) the people are all very friendly. One of the things I learned when studying for my trip is that, culturally, getting into an argument and getting angry with someone face to face is a sign of losing Face. Direct confrontation is bad, and if Thai people have a problem, they work quietly to resolve it, or will work through a third party to avoid getting angry in public. This carries over into how they treat foreigners. The hotel I picked to stay at wasn't in a major tourist center, but it was sort of in between all the places I wanted to go. As such, being an American walking down the street drew me a lot of stares, but invariably, if I caught someone staring and I smiled at them, I'd get a huge, face-splitting, smile in response.
One of the beaches I visited a few times was more of a locals beach, not a tourist one. And despite the usual stares, there was never a sense of exclusion. At one point a Thai woman came up to me and asked me to take a picture with her and someone in the group I was with, just, I think, because she wanted to have a picture with her and the crazy foreigners. Which, if I may deviate off-topic slightly, brings up something I noticed, which I've seen on other trips. There's a weird sort of unspoken protocol involved in taking a picture for someone. They hand you the camera, there's the few moments of indicating which button to push, then they pose, you take the picture(s), and they retrieve the camera. In all my travels, I've never seen someone hand off a camera to get a picture taken and then have the prospective picture-taker bolt with the camera. It's like there's an unspoken rule that if you're going to steal from people, that's not the time to do it. There's a weird sort of universal courtesy involved in picture-taking. But I digress. =)
I'm no expert with language but I did pick up a couple of phrases (Sawasdee ka = hello and Kap khun ka = thank you -- at least for women. The 'ka' bit is a 'polite' word that women use. Men use a different polite word in their phrases. I think it's 'kup', but I'm not entirely sure on the spelling). I found that using those phrases made the Thai folk even more friendly and the fact that I was willing to try a little Thai (even though I know my accent was awful, I have trouble getting tonal languages right), made them more patient with me as I used a combination of English and hand gestures to explain things. Most Thai speak English to some degree-- in the more touristy areas, I had no trouble with English at all. With the street vendors and shop keepers near the hotel, I ran into people who spoke very little English, but were very patient with me as I explained what I wanted from the store or the food vendors.
I also discovered a peculiar quirk with Thai salespeople, that unnerved me at first, but once I got used to it and figured it out, I actually liked it. If you walk into a Thai store, and there are free salespeople around, one of them will hover near you. They follow you everywhere you go. They don't usually push things at your or ask if you want help-- at first I thought the lack of talking was because of poor English, but I noticed this same behavior in how they helped locals-- unless they can tell you're looking for something specific, then they'll show you a lot of what you're looking for. But they're there in case you need help or have a question. It was a little odd having a shadow, and at first it felt like I was being pressured to buy something, but I noticed that there wasn't any negative response if I chose to not buy anything at a store, or any attempts to get really pushy (aside from the aforementioned street vendors at major tourist attractions). Once I got used to it, it was actually convenient. I could (and did-- I spent several days doing nothing but shopping) browse at my leisure and if I did have a question, or decided to buy something, I didn't have to hunt for someone to help me, but neither did I have to put up with a lot of high-pressure sales pitches.
In specific, there are two people I want to mention, my tour guide at the Grand Palace, and the tuk-tuk driver we hired one day in Bangkok. If you are ever in Thailand, and you're going to a major tourist site, like the Grand Palace, avoid talking to any of the sales vendors, but if you see someone with a badge around their neck saying 'licensed tour guide', pay whatever they're asking (it's usually a few hundred baht. I never paid more than about $15 or $20 for a tour guide), because it's always worth it. Instead of just getting the sites, you get the history as well. The tour guide we had at the Grand Palace was my first experience in hiring a guide, and he was worth every baht. Instead of just getting a bunch of pictures, I learned a lot about the history of the places, and the significance of a lot of the buildings and decorations in the complex. (more about that in another post). Our guide was a retired Captain in the Thai Royal Navy-- they force all their soldiers to retire at 60, and he wasn't ready to settle into a life of leisure so he became a tour guide. He was quite knowledgeable and his English was excellent. He put up with the barrage of questions we threw at him, and let us know where we could and couldn't take pictures, as well as helping us avoid any cultural faux pas as in some of the buildings certain dress codes were required. From what I could gather by watching other groups, all the tour guides were equally competent.
One day in Bangkok (in fact, our first attempt to see the Grand Palace, where we ended up getting sidetracked instead), we hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us around. A tuk-tuk is basically a glorified golf cart, used as a taxi. They don't charge much, and one of the reasons for that is that the drivers (at least in Bangkok, I didn't notice this near the hotel, which wasn't a tourist area) have deals with various stores and sites where if you buy something at them, they get a cut of the profits. So if all you want to do is tourist stuff, you're better served avoiding them in Bangkok, despite the low cost of their services. If you want to do a lot of shopping, you couldn't have a better guide. All of the major shopping purchases that I wanted to make I was able to do in that one day without wandering around lost because our driver knew exactly where to go. I was able to pick up some gemstones and jewelry that I wanted to acquire and I was able to get some tailor-made skirts out of Thai silk. I also had been asked by my fiance's mother to pick up as much undyed Thai silk as I could get for her (She gave me $300. I went over that, but it was for a good cause) and she'd make my wedding dress out of it and use any leftover for her other sewing projects. Thai silk sells for $60 a yard in the US. The tuk-tuk driver knew of a place that sold it, and took us there, and I paid just over $17 a yard for it (although they used meters, so it was $18.75 per meter) and got 20 meters' worth. Much better pricing than in the States. The other nice thing about the tuk-tuk drivers is that they'll wait for you while you do whatever it is you're doing, shopping, eating, sight-seeing. You can hire them more or less for the day.
And, since no post about a vacation would be complete without at least a couple of pictures, here are one of me and the tour guide (Tawee, although we called him "Captain" for the easiness factor) at the Grand Palace and one of our tuk-tuk driver (whose name I don't remember).
So to sum up, if you're ever in Thailand, hire a tour guide at the major sites if you can find one, if you want to do lots of shopping, hire a tuk-tuk driver (but taxis or buses are a better choice for sight-seeing), and remember that a 'Sawasdee ka' and a smile can go a long way. The people are very friendly and helpful, even if you're just stopping someone on the street to ask for directions. I definitely like living in the US, but I really became enamored with the Thai cultural norms. It's great to be in a place where generally people go out of their way to avoid confrontations and to be polite.